Greek name meaning "anointed one," the original Greek form behind the title Christ.
Christos is the Greek original behind the title Christ — from chriō, meaning 'to anoint,' the ritual act of consecrating a king or priest by rubbing them with sacred oil. In the ancient world the anointed one was the designated chosen, marked out by ceremony for a special role. The Hebrew equivalent, Mashiach (Messiah), carries the identical meaning, and the two words converged in early Christian theology to produce a name so significant that its direct use was long considered presumptuous in Western Europe — giving rise to substitute forms like Christian and Christopher.
In the Greek Orthodox tradition, however, Christos has been given directly to children for centuries, protected by a different theological sensibility that sees naming as an act of dedication rather than appropriation. The name-day celebration on Christos in Greece — Easter Sunday itself, the most sacred day in the Orthodox calendar — means that every Christos effectively shares a feast day with the entire nation, a remarkable piece of cultural integration. The Bulgarian-American artist Christo Javacheff, known simply as Christo, who wrapped the Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in fabric, gave the name an unexpected avant-garde dimension in the late twentieth century.
For non-Greek parents, Christos offers a way into a name with enormous historical weight without the familiarity of Christopher or Christian. It is immediately recognizable in its roots while remaining unusual in daily life — a combination that tends to produce names people remember after a single meeting.
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